Here is a poem that my sister read when Jeremy and I got married.
I just thought it was brilliant and she read it beautifully in her long green velvet dress with all her curly hair.
That was about 11 yrs ago now and I have often thought about it but couldn't remember it all or who it was by. At Christmas we went up to my parents and found it in my Dad's little poetry book.
I thought it was a good poem for blogging as well because when having a look round the world of blog you find some lovely embroidered cloths and lightly treading visitors and it's a pleasure to see.
Anyway here's the poem, (it's by Yeats)

HAD I the heavens’ embroidered cloths,

Enwrought with golden and silver light,

The blue and the dim and the dark cloths

Of night and light and the half light,

I would spread the cloths under your feet:

But I, being poor, have only my dreams;

I have spread my dreams under your feet;

Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

dilemma

Today I was faced with a dilemma,
1. be selfish
2. stick with the tribe
3. go for the common good.

I think I managed to stick to the third mostly but it is very easy to slip into the first and second, in real life situations you don't have time to keep thinking back to first principles and bad habits get in the way, but I suppose practice is the best way. It's not always easy to know what is for the best, but it's important to listen and learn, look at things from the other person's point of view and be open to the fact that things may not be as they originally seem. I don't know if there are people that don't have the first two at all but I have to admit that I have and recognise them and always question my motives. I have to know where my limitations are in order to overcome them. I have to be strong and prepared to take a risk. The hardest thing is that in order to get it right I have to do so much getting it wrong first.

The stuff that dreams are made of

As dreams are listed as one of my interests I'll do a post that's a bit different and which came really from reading Paul's blog. I was very excited to find this on Carl Jung in a book about dreams I found in a second hand shop a while ago.

" Jung saw each stage of life as carrying developmental significance, and stressed the capacity for growth and self actualization even into advanced old age.
The aim of psychotherapy, and thus of dream analysis, was to give the individual access to the personal and collective unconscious, not in order to learn the dark secrets of the past but to discover and integrate each aspect of the self into psychic wholeness. In the course of such integration, men and women reconcile not only hitherto conflicting sides of themselves, but free an often repressed "religious function." Jung discovered through his work with the dreams and neuroses of his clients that this function is at least equal in strength to the Freudian instincts of sex and agression. The religious function has nothing to do with creeds and dogmas, but is an expression of the collective unconscious that inspires us toward spirituality and love."

Heavy stuff but what an idea, Collective unconscious. When you see flocks of starlings at dusk or shoals of fish swimming together it seems quite possible, then there is shared visions. Jung said that some of our dreams come from the collective unconscious and bear universal symbols.
Some dreams do seem more symbolic than others.

I have a recurring dream of trying to get to the sea, but when I get there it either isn't the sea or I can't get to it.

Another dream I had a long long time ago, that I was reminded of recently was an idea for a painting, it was a man parachuting down from the sky, or rather the parachute was the sky and was all geometrically jewelled with stars, the man had reached the ground which was a scrubby flat ex industrial waste ground with a river winding off into the distance, it looked like dawn. Where he reached the ground he made an odd assymetrical shape. It looked like the whole thing had been painted on plaster which was crumbling away and there were layers of board and lath and old wallpaper with underneath that, block printed and stained into the canvas before it was primed was a repeat pattern of interlocking animals.

This was while I was doing a dissertation about the paintings of Anselm Kiefer and the quest for unity in art, particularly German art, Anselm Kiefer uses a lot of dream like symbolism in his paintings which relate to nature, the subconscious and an affinity with the soil. Other Painters like Kaspar David Friedrich, who's paintings were beautifully painted natural scenes with a symmetrical central figure such as a tree or cathedral or cross rising up to heaven, the Blaue Reiter movement, who use, natural forms and animals, led by Wassily Kandinsky whos paintings are rich in symbolism taken from folk tales and he uses colour symbolism too, as did Emil Nolde who's watercolours just take my breath away, through to the modern German Expressionist painters.
The Jugendstil was linked to Art Nouveau and again there was a move towards natural forms and was almost a way of life rather than an art movement.
I've forgotten a lot of it because it was a long time ago but this was the basic gist from what I remember.

This probably was where the dream came from at least in part.

Unfortunately there was also a link with this move back to nature and the Nazi movement who picked this up and twisted it to their own ends, and this happened not only in Germany. I was dismayed to find out that despite his noble search for ultimate truth through his art and his beautiful paintings, Emil Nolde was a Nazi sympathiser and supported the eugenics movement (as did many English people) but eventually ended up being ostracised by them and had to paint in secret. How was it possible to be so genuinely and passionately searching for the truth and go so badly astray?

Anyhow there are still artists out there looking, and using symbolism to express things which are difficult to put into words but are recognisable to people.

Jung said some symbols have a universal meaning and others appear to be personal to the dreamer. Some cultures take a lot more notice of dreams whereas here in England we tend to sweep them under the carpet, I wonder if the symbolism crosses cultures as well. I love to hear what other people dream about and I wonder why we don't tend to talk about it much.

As you can see the rain has finally stopped. Here's me and Jeremy looking out of the window in disbelief.

These were all taken last night on a bike ride not far from our house. The corner of one field was just a mass of poppies, and the larks were singing their hearts out, I saw hares and rabbits and a beautiful barn owl, it looked amazing in the evening sunlight, being so white it really stood out against the fields and dived down into the grass to catch something every now and then. I didn't manage to catch it on camera but maybe next time

Another episode.

Since the last episode didn't have a happy ending I thought I'd add the next bit.

After a while, Li said "can't we ride, my feet are killing me" Airong mounted her horse and waited for Li to climb up behind. They rode along in silence for a while, eventually Li said,
" This is boring." she started to sing a bawdy song about the freedom of the road and the joy of being master of your own destiny.
"Do you have to?" Airong wouldn't admit it but she couldn't deny that Li had a good voice and it was a terrific song. When Li had finished she started another, quieter song but no less jolly about the spring coming and new beginnings,
"I know this one" Airong said excitedly, she took out her silver flute and began to play along. They rode and played and sang for a good while until the sun began to set, then they jumped down from the horses and Airong took the bowl out of her knapsack. Both girls held their breath and peered into the bowl as Airong lifted the lid......there was the gorgeous meal they had both prayed for. They dug in straight away and it tasted better than anything they'd ever eaten. In no time it was gone, so they lay down on the ground feeling full and contented.
They chatted and laughed for a while, then Li asked "what happened to your other horse?" Airong told the whole story
"I feel terrible about it", she said, "I just hope they look after him well"
"They will" , said Li
"but how can you be so sure?"
"I know those people" Li said, "I lived with them for a while, they live and breath horses. They would never mistreat them, Airong, don't you worry. That's where I learned to ride, and where I learned the songs"
"Do you think you could get him back?" Airong sat up suddenly
"No way,"said Li, "do you think they'd listen to me, you're joking" Airong sagged down onto the blanket, Li started talking about her life with the travelling people to take Airong's mind off her lovely horse.
"Where do you come from originally though?"asked Airong,
"The same town as you"
"But did you have parents?"
"Of course I did," said Li, "I had a sister once, but they're all dead now."
She said this in a very matter of fact way, as if she were merely stating a fact which had no relevance to her at all. She glanced sideways at Airong, who wasn't at all sure how to take this. "Oh I'm sorry" Airong said but she thought that by Li's tone of voice, it couldn't possibly be true. Then she thought of what a hard life Li had had, travelling alone and living on her wits, maybe her family were dead, but Li had already moved on and was now telling her how she may go back to see the travellers again one day.
"why did you leave them?" asked Airong,
"Oh I wanted to go my own way", she said
Li told stories about the mountains and the spirits who are rumoured to live there, until they eventually went to sleep. Airong had made sure that her precious knapsack was hugged closely to her this time and they slept deeply for a long time.


When Airong woke, Li was still sleeping. She looked so relaxed and her face looked completely different without the defiance of yesterday. The mountains were lit by the morning sun, they looked even closer since the air was so clear. Airong shuddered when she remembered her task, she had been distracted by all the events of the previous days and had not thought about how she would fare on the mountain and how she would find the bluebird. She remembered the stories Li had told but she couldn't let that put her off, she knew what she had to do and she could only trust her fate. Finally Li woke up and stretched herself, she saw that Airong was looking towards the mountains,
"We'll reach them today, then you're on your own mate. I'm not following you up there, golden bowl or not."
"Oh I can manage" said Airong and they packed up their few things and mounted Sol.

Earthstars

Wierd aren't they? Call me sad but I was very excited to find these, having been fascinated by a drawing of one at the age of about 10 and never seeing them in real life. A bit like puff balls with a fancy skirt on, my mission now is to find a time lapse film of them opening and closing.